Speaker Bios

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Mohamed Abdinoor
Team Leader, Pastoralism and Livestock Programs, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Ethiopia

Mohamed Abdinoor is currently working with USAID/Ethiopia as team leader on Pastoralism and Livestock Programs and serves as USAID’s Ethiopia technical lead on resilience strategy. Prior to joining USAID/Ethiopia in 2009, he worked with several other international organizations such as Save the Children, UN World Food Programme, Oxfam, and Doctors Without Borders (MSF). He has a B.Sc. in Environment and Natural Resources from Kenyatta University, Kenya, and an M.A. in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia, UK.

 

Baba Yusuf Abubakar
Executive Secretary, Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, Nigeria

Baba Yusuf Abubakar is the executive secretary of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria. He has served internationally in various capacities as a member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Fund Council representing Africa south of the Sahara; as the chairman of the Governing Board of the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD); as liaison officer of the Centre for Agricultural Biosciences International (CABI); and as a member of the Executive Board of the Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA). He holds a Ph.D. in Animal Breeding and Genetics from Cornell University, USA.

 

Akinwumi A. Adesina
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nigeria

Akinwumi Adesina is the minister of Agriculture and Rural Development for the Government of Nigeria. Prior to his ministerial appointment, he was the vice president of Policy and Partnerships for the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA); principal economist for the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture; associate director at the Rockefeller Foundation; and president of the African Association of Agricultural Economists. He received his bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ife and his PhD in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University.

 

Rajendra Prasad Adhikari
Joint Secretary and Chief of Policy and International Cooperation, Ministry of Agricultural Development, Nepal

Rajendra Prasad Adhikari is currently serving as a joint secretary and chief of Policy and International Cooperation, Coordination Division, at the Ministry of Agricultural Development, Nepal. He was the recipient of the Nepal Education Medal (2010), Australian Leadership Award (2009), and Best Civil Servant of the district (2000). He has served for more than 15 years in the Ministry of Agricultural Development, looking after different portfolios including planning, monitoring, and evaluation of agricultural programs. He holds a Ph.D. in Agribusiness Management from the University of Queensland, Australia.

 

Djimé Adoum
Executive Secretary, Permanent Interstates Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), Burkina Faso

Djimé Adoum is the executive secretary for the Permanent Interstates Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS). He has over 25 years of professional experience in international development. He specializes in sectoral strategies and expert design, programming, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. He has worked in Cameroon, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, and the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in Agronomy and Agro-extension from the University of Maryland, USA.

 

 

Mercedita Agcaoili-Sombilla
Director, Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Environment Staff, National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), Philippines

Mercedita Agcaoili-Sombilla is the director of the Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Environment Staff of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), the government of the Philippines planning and policy body that oversees the development and implementation of national programs and projects. Prior to joining NEDA, she was engaged in research geared toward formulating appropriate policies to sustain growth and promote improvement of food security, reduction of poverty, and the improvement of welfare of rural households. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, USA.

 

Yemi Akinbamijo
Executive Director, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Ghana

Yemi Akinbamijo is the executive director of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). He has spent the past 28 years in Africa and Europe working in the international agriculture, food security, and rural development domains. He was head of division of the Agriculture and Food Security Division at the African Union (AU) Commission Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; director of the AU Inter-African Phytosanitary Council based in Yaoundé, Cameroon; and served on the Africa-Arab Joint Action on Food Security and Agriculture. He has a Ph.D. in Agriculture and Environmental Sciences from Wageningen University Research Centre, The Netherlands.

 

Marco Albani
Senior Expert, Sustainability and Resource Productivity, McKinsey & Company, Italy

Marco Albani is a Rome-based senior expert in the Sustainability and Resource Productivity Practice of McKinsey & Company, where he serves public, private, and social sector clients on strategic topics in the natural resources and sustainability arena, helping them to address the energy-food-water nexus and the challenges and opportunities created by climate change. Prior to joining McKinsey, Marco worked as a researcher in forest landscape ecology and carbon sequestration in forest ecosystems. He holds a Ph.D. in Forest Sciences from the University of British Columbia and a Baccalaureate degree in Forestry from the University of Florence, Italy.

 

Abdallah Al Dardari
Chief Economist and Director, Economic Development and Globalization, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Lebanon

Abdallah Al Dardari is the chief economist and director of the Economic Development and Globalization Division of the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). He has extensive experience in the areas of competitiveness, investments, and international trade negotiations. He holds an M.A. in International Political Economy from the University of Southern California, USA, and a B.A. in Economics from Richmond University London, UK. He did additional post-graduate research at the London School of Economics, UK.

 

Fawzi Al-Sultan
Chair, Board of Trustees, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Kuwait

As Senior Partner with F&N Consultancy, Fawzi Al-Sultan has worked closely with the Government of Kuwait in its efforts to open up the economy by transforming the country into a trade and investment hub. From 2001 to 2004, he served as Secretary General of Kuwait's Higher Committee for Economic Development and Reform. He was at the helm of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) from 1993 to 2001, and before that served the World Bank as Executive Director for 10 years.

 

 

Harold Alderman
Senior Research Fellow, Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division, IFPRI

Harold Alderman is a senior research fellow in IFPRI’s Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division. As an economist and nutritionist, he has naturally gravitated to research on the economics of nutrition and food policy. He spent 10 years at IFPRI prior to joining the World Bank in 1991. He rejoined IFPRI in 2012. While at the World Bank, he divided his time between the Development Research Group and the Africa region where he advised on social protection policy. His current research has focused on the linkages between nutrition and early child development and the means by which nutrition and social protection programs contribute to long term economic growth. He has a Master’s degree in Nutrition from Cornell University, USA, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, USA.

 

Daniel P. Aldrich
Associate Professor and University Faculty Scholar, Purdue University, USA

Daniel P. Aldrich is an associate professor of political science at Purdue University. He has authored or edited three books and more than 60 peer reviewed articles, reviews, and editorials. He has been a visiting scholar at the Japanese Ministry of Finance, the Institute for Social Science at Tokyo University, Harvard University, the Tata Institute for Social Science in Mumbai, the Institut d’etudes politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), and the East West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science from Harvard University, USA, an M.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, USA, and a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.

 

Mubarik Ali
Senior Research Fellow, Innovative Development Strategies (IDS), Pakistan

Mubarik Ali is a senior research fellow in IFPRI’s Pakistan Strategy Program where he oversees policy research related to the agriculture sector, especially productivity, sustainability and food security issues. Before joining IFPRI, he was chief executive of the Punjab Agricultural Research Board, where he led research planning, monitoring, financing, and commercialization of agriculture research in the Punjab. He is an internationally renowned agricultural economist, and has over thirty years of research and research management experience in such international organizations as USAID, IRRI, World Bank, and AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center. He received his Ph.D. from the University of the Philippines.

 

Luca Alinovi
Representative, FAO, Kenya

Luca Alinovi is the representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Kenya. He has worked as a food security analyst and agricultural economist for FAO, the Italian Development Cooperation, the University of Florence, and private sector companies. He has published papers on food security and complex emergencies with the Accademia dei Lincei and in the journal Disasters. He holds an M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the Università di Firenze, Faculty of Tropical Agriculture and a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Natural Resources Economics.

 

Perrihan Al-Riffai
Senior Research Analyst, Development Strategy and Governance Division, IFPRI

Perrihan Al-Riffai is a senior research analyst in the Development Strategy and Governance Division at IFPRI. She has held several positions, including teaching positions and international development consultancies with the World Bank, IFPRI and the UNDP. Her research at IFPRI had focused on trade and biofuels and now focuses on food security in the Arab world. She received an M.Phil. in Economics from George Washington University and an M.A. in Economics from the American University in Cairo, Egypt.

 

Per Pinstrup-Andersen
Professor Emeritus, Cornell University, USA

Per Pinstrup-Andersen is a graduate school professor emeritus at Cornell University and adjunct professor at Copenhagen University. He is chairman of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and vice chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Council on Food Security. He has published more than 450 books, articles, and papers, including recent books on food policy for developing countries and the relationship between food systems and human health and nutrition. He has a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Oklahoma State University, USA.

 

Kym Anderson
Professor, University of Adelaide, Australia

Kym Anderson is the George Gollin Professor of Economics at the University of Adelaide in Australia. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of IFPRI, and of Australia’s Commission for International Agricultural Research. He has published more than 300 articles and 30 books. His publications have received a number of awards, including the 2010 Bruce Gardner Memorial Prize for Applied Policy Analysis from the U.S.-based Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

 

 

Lystra N. Antoine
Global Director, Sustainable Agriculture Development, DuPont Pioneer, USA

Lystra N. Antoine leads DuPont Pioneer’s sustainable agriculture development efforts globally. She is responsible for designing and leading the implementation of agriculture development initiatives that help smallholder farmers improve their livelihoods and increase their contribution to the value chain. She leads the development of public-private partnerships that support these goals, and she also articulates the company’s position on policies in emerging economies that enable responsible agricultural development and facilitate private sector participation. She holds an MBA from the State University of New York- Buffalo, USA, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, USA.

 

Tom Arnold
Director General, Institute of International and European Affairs, and Special Representative for Hunger, Concern Worldwide, Ireland

Tom Arnold is director general of the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA). He is also the chairman of the Convention on the Irish Constitution. He served on the Board of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and is also a member of IFPRI’s 2020 and Strategic Advisory Council. In April 2012, he was appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-Moon to the Lead Group of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement. Tom is a graduate in Agricultural Economics from University College Dublin and has Master’s degrees from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, and Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

 

Sheri Arnott
Senior Policy Advisor, World Vision International, USA

Sheri Arnott is World Vision International’s senior policy advisor for Food Assistance and Food Security. Her current priority areas include the role of inclusive social protection in building resilience (with a focus on fragile states), nutrition- and gender-sensitive approaches to agriculture and food security, food security and nutrition in the post-2015 agenda, the new Food Assistance Convention, and the UN World Committee on Food Insecurity’s work stream on Countries in Protracted Crises. She has an M.S. from McGill University’s (Canada) Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and a B.A. in Human-Environment Relations.

 

Lauren Alexander Augustine
Director, Program on Risk, Resilience, and Extreme Events; Associate Executive Director, Division on Earth and Life Studies, The National Research Council, USA

 

 

 

 

Lapodini Marc Atouga
Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment, and Water Resources, ECOWAS Commission, Nigeria

 

Aden Aw Hassan
Director, Social, Economic, and Policy Research Program, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Jordan

Aden A. Aw-Hassan is principal agricultural economist and director of Social, Economics, and Policy Research Program at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). His research interests include economic impacts of climate change, rural livelihoods, market value chain research, and assessment of agricultural research impacts. He holds an M.Sc. from Utah State University and a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University, USA.

 

 

Suresh Babu
Senior Research Fellow, Partnership, Impact, and Capacity Strengthening Unit, IFPRI, USA

Suresh Babu is a senior research fellow in IFPRI’s Partnership, Impact, and Capacity Strengthening Unit, where he has been involved in institutional and human capacity strengthening for higher education and research in many countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, including, Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa for the past 23 years. Before joining IFPRI in 1992 as a research fellow, he was a research economist at Cornell University, and also spent five years in Malawi in various roles. He received an M.S. in Economics and a Ph.D. in Economics at Iowa State University, USA.

 

Ousmane Badiane
Director for Africa, IFPRI, USA

Ousmane Badiane is IFPRI’s director for Africa. In this role, he oversees the institute’s two regional offices for West and Central Africa in Dakar and Eastern and Southern Africa in Addis Ababa. He is also in charge of IFPRI’s partnerships with African institutions. As an advisor to the NEPAD Secretariat from 2004 to 2007, he was instrumental in developing and guiding the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). Before his current tenure at IFPRI, Ousmane, a national of Senegal, was lead specialist for Food and Agricultural Policy for the Africa Region at the World Bank. He received a Master’s Degree and Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Kiel, Germany.

 

Christopher B. Barrett
Professor, Cornell University, USA

Christopher B. Barrett is the David J. Nolan Director and the Stephen B. & Janice G. Ashley Professor of Applied Economics and Management and international professor of Agriculture in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, as well as professor in the Department of Economics, all at Cornell University. He has published 14 books and more than 260 journal articles or book chapters. He holds degrees from Princeton University (A.B., History, 1984), Oxford (M.S., Development Economics, 1985) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (dual Ph.D., Economics and Agricultural Economics, 1994), USA.

 

Thomas Beck
Director, Resilience Secretariat, USAID

Thomas Beck is the director of the USAID Resilience Secretariat, a new position which supports the Agency’s leadership team in ensuring the coherence and achievement of USAID’s priority resilience agenda. He has extensive experience in the areas of conflict prevention, post conflict reconstruction and international organizations. He co-led the drafting the U.S. Strategy for Meeting the Millennium Development Goals and served also as senior advisor to USAID’s Bureau for Food Security and the Office of the Deputy Coordinator for the Presidential initiative, Feed the Future. He is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University Law School, USA, and holds an LLM in International Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

 

Regina Birner
Chair of Social and Institutional Change in Agricultural Development, Institute of Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences in the Tropics and Subtropics, University of Hohenheim, Germany

 

 

 

Mamadou Biteye
Managing Director, Africa Regional Office, The Rockefeller Foundation, Kenya

Mamadou Biteye is the managing director of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Africa Regional Office. He oversees the Foundation’s work across Africa. He has over twenty years of experience in strategic leadership, human resources management, financial management, program development and implementation, public policy analysis, advocacy and campaigning, and community participatory development. He holds a Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics from Ohio State University, USA, and a Master’s degree and B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the Crimean Agricultural Institute, Ukraine.

 

Khalid Bomba
Chief Executive Officer, Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency, Ethiopia

Khalid Bomba is the chief executive officer of the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA). Prior to joining the ATA, Khalid was senior program officer within the Agriculture Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and served as the regional director for Africa at the Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative. He has also held senior-level and executive positions in various public- and private-sector institutions. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College, USA, and his M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, UK.

 

Aurélie Botta
Researcher, Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), France

 

 

 

 

Khalida Bouzar
Director, Division of Near East, North Africa, Europe and Central Asia, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Italy

 

 

 

 

Clemens Breisinger
Senior Research Fellow, Development Strategy and Governance Division, IFPRI, USA

Clemens Breisinger is an economist and senior research fellow in IFPRI’s Development Strategy and Governance Division, which he joined in 2006. Clemens leads the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) team, which provides knowledge, strengthens capacity, and aims at influencing policy and investment decisions for an Arab World free of poverty and malnutrition. Before leading the MENA team, Clemens’ work covered a broad range of issues related to the roles of agriculture and mineral resources for economic development, global crises and their impacts on food security and poverty, and the economic effects of climate change and options for adaptation. He received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Hohenheim, Germany, in 2006, where he also worked as a research and teaching associate.

 

Roehlano Briones
Senior Research Fellow, Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Philippines

Roehlano Briones is a senior research fellow at the Philippine Institute for Development Studies. He was the lead expert in the drafting of the rules and procedures for the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR). He has published on the economics of agriculture and natural resources, rural development, food security, international trade, and the macro economy. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of the Philippines and did postdoctoral research at the WorldFish Center in Penang, Malaysia.

 

Karen Brooks
Director, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets, IFPRI, USA

Karen Brooks is the director of the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) led by IFPRI. Prior to her role at IFPRI, she worked for the World Bank for 20 years, managing analytical and operational programs in agriculture and rural development for the Africa region and also working extensively in Europe and Central Asia. She also served as associate professor in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota. She received both her Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in Economics from the University of Chicago, USA, where she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow.

 

Dominique Burgeon
Director, Emergency and Rehabilitation Division, FAO, Italy

Dominique Burgeon is the director of FAO’s Emergency and Rehabilitation Division. He also coordinates FAO’s Corporate Strategic Objective on resilience of livelihoods to threats and crisis. He has worked in emergency and disaster risk management with the FAO for approximately 20 years. He holds an M.Sc. diploma in Agricultural Engineering from the State University of Gembloux, Belgium, and a postgraduate degree in International Relations and European Integration from the State University of Liège, Faculty of Law, Belgium.

 

Mayra Buvinic
Senior Fellow, United Nations Foundation, USA

Mayra Buvinic is a senior fellow at the United Nations Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation, she was director for Gender and Development at the World Bank. She has written extensively on issues related to gender and development; gender and poverty; violence reduction and violence prevention; and social development and social inclusion, the latter with a particular focus on Latin America and the Caribbean. She has a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

 

 

Daniel Callo-Concha
Senior Researcher, Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany

Daniel Callo-Concha is a senior researcher in the Department of Ecology and Natural Resources Management of the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn. His work focuses on the study of agricultural systems as complex systems, the interface between production/environment, resilience/vulnerability and adaptability, and rural development. He currently researches adaptation to climate change, food and nutrition security, renewable energy, and ecosystem services in East and Western Africa and Latin America.

 

Gero Carletto
Lead Economist, Development Research Group, World Bank, USA

 

 

 

 

 

Margaret Catley-Carlson
UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water, Canadian Water Network, International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC), Canada

Margaret Catley-Carlson operates at the board level of many organizations in support of improved water resource management and the twin issues of agricultural productivity and rural development. She is the chair of the Foresight Advisory Committee for Group Suez Environment and a member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water, as well as the International Fertilizer Development Center, IFPRI, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the World Food Prize and Syngenta Foundation Boards, the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Water, the Rosenberg Forum, and the Canadian Water Network.

 

Dyborn Chibonga
Chief Executive Officer, National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi, Malawi

Dyborn Chibonga manages the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM) as chief executive officer. He has represented smallholder farmers at the World Economic Forum on Africa in 2010, 2011 and 2012; the Grow Africa Investment Forum in 2012; UNFCCC COP 15-19; and the UN Rio +20 Conference in 2012. He holds a Master’s certificate in NGO Management and an M.Sc. in Landscape Ecology Design and Maintenance from Wye College, University of London, UK. He also has a B.Sc. (Credit) and Diploma (Credit) from Bunda College of Agriculture, University of Malawi, Malawi.

 

Pamela Chitenhe
Regional Director, Africa, DuPont Pioneer, South Africa

Pamela Chitenhe joined DuPont Pioneer in 2011 as regional director for Africa. She is responsible for all business operations in Africa. This includes the South Africa, East & South Central Africa (ESCA), and North Africa and Middle East Pioneer seed business units. Pamela leads the DuPont Pioneer Africa leadership team and is based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is responsible for all the operations of Pannar Seed in Africa. She is the chairperson of the board of directors for the Pannar Seed business and is also a member of Pioneer's Enterprise Leadership Council.

 

Mark A. Constas
Chair, FSIN Resilience Measurement Technical Working Group, and Associate Professor, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, USA

Mark A. Constas is an associate professor in the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and a faculty fellow of the David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future. With a specialization in impact evaluation and measurement, his research explores how best to model in empirical terms the extent to which households and communities can achieve and maintain well-being in shock-prone environments. He is currently serving as chair of the Resilience Measurement Technical Working Group (under the Food Security Information Network), an effort jointly coordinated by FAO and WFP.

 

Ertharin Cousin
Executive Director, World Food Programme, Italy

Ertharin Cousin is the executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). In 2009, she was confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, and head of the U.S. Mission to the U.N. Agencies in Rome, where she helped guide U.S. and international policy around some of the most devastating and life threatening situations in the world. She has significant background in the retail food sector, leading government communications and community affairs for two large U.S. grocery chains, Albertsons Foods and Jewell Foods. She is a native of Chicago and a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Georgia School of Law, USA.

 

Ashvin Dayal
Associate Vice President and Managing Director, The Rockefeller Foundation, China

Ashvin Dayal is the associate vice president and managing director at The Rockefeller Foundation, based in Bangkok. He leads the Foundation’s Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network as well as an initiative aimed at scaling up off-grid renewable energy solutions for rural communities. He also helps integrate the Foundation’s investments in Asia for achieving universal health coverage, advancing cross-border collaboration in disease surveillance, and the growth of impact investing and local philanthropy.

 

Alessandro (Alex) De Pinto
Senior Research Fellow, Environment and Production Technology Division, IFPRI, USA

Alessandro (Alex) De Pinto is a senior research fellow in IFPRI’s Environment and Production Technology Division. Prior to joining IFPRI, he was assistant professor at the University of Redlands. His research focuses on economic spatial analysis and uses a series of modeling techniques that make it possible to simulate location-specific effects of policy changes and their consequent environmental effects. He has worked in the United States, Italy, Costa Rica, and Somalia. He received his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Consumer Economics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA, where he specialized in Environmental and Natural Resource Economics.

 

Banak J. Dei Wal
Director General of Disaster Management, Ministry of Gender, Child, Social Welfare, Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Republic of South Sudan

Banak J. Dei Wal is director general of disaster management at the Ministry of Gender, Social Welfare, Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management in South Sudan. He works to meet the needs of vulnerable people in diverse cultural, political, and socioeconomic settings by enhancing the development of national disaster risk management policy as well as the national food reserve strategy in South Sudan.

 

 

H.E. Hailemariam Dessalegn
Prime Minister of Ethiopia

 

 

 

 

 

S. Mahendra Dev
Director, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, India

S. Mahendra Dev has been Director and Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) in Mumbai, India since 2010. Prior to this position, he was Chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, Ministry of Agriculture in the rank of Secretary to Government of India from 2008 to 2010. He was Director, Centre for Economic and Social Studies, Hyderabad, India for 9 years from 1999 to 2008. He received his Ph.D. from the Delhi School of Economics and his postdoctoral research at Yale University and was faculty member at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research in Mumbai for 11 years.

 

Mohamed Diab
Regional Director, Regional Bureau for the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, and East Europe, World Food Programme, United Arab Emirates

Mohamed Diab is the regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, and East Europe Bureau at the World Food Programme (WFP). He obtained a Ph.D. in Development Studies from the University of Sussex, UK.

 

 

Amadou Allahoury Diallo
High Commissioner, 3N Initiative, Niger

Amadou Allahoury Diallo is the high commissioner (minister), reporting directly to the President of Niger, for the national strategy for Food Security and Agriculture development—called the 3N Initiative, “Nigeriens feeding Nigeriens.” At the global level, he has been appointed for two years by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) as member of the steering committee of CFS’s High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) for food security and nutrition. He has been involved as peer reviewer to the World Bank Agricultural Water Investment sourcebook and evaluator of FAO’s work related to water.

 

Ibrahima Dieme
Commissioner in Charge of Food Security, Mines, and Environment, West African Economic and Monetary Union, Burkina Faso

Ibrahima Dieme is commissioner in charge of Food Security, Mines, and Environment for the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). He participated in the formulation of the regional agenda on food security and contributed to the implementation of the charter "for the prevention and management of food crises," adopted by the West African countries in November 2011. An economist by training, he possesses extensive experience in international finance. He served as director of the West African Development Bank Development and governor of the African Development Bank.

 

Charlotte Dufour
Food Security, Nutrition and Livelihoods Advisor, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Italy

Charlotte Dufour works as nutrition officer in FAO’s Nutrition Division in Rome. She is specialist in agriculture, food security and nutrition linkages and has experience working in both emergency and development programs. Between 2000 and 2010, she worked primarily on food and nutrition security in Afghanistan, with Action Contre la Faim, Groupe URD (Urgence-Réhabilitation-Développement), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health and other development partners. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human Sciences from Oxford University and an M.Sc. in Public Health Nutrition from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

 

Ismahane Elouafi
Director General, International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), United Arab Emirates

Ismahane Elouafi is the director general of the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, based in Dubai. She has over 15 years of experience in agricultural research, science management, and science/policy integration. She has also worked as a scientist with several international research organizations, such as the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS); International Center for Agricultural Research and Dry Areas (ICARDA); and International Maize and Wheat Center (CIMMYT). She holds a Ph.D. in Plant Genetics from Cordoba University, Spain.

 

Shenggen Fan
Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Shenggen Fan has been director general of the IFPRI since 2009. He joined IFPRI in 1995 as a research fellow, conducting extensive research on pro-poor development strategies in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. He led IFPRI’s program on public investment before becoming the director of the Institute’s Development Strategy and Governance Division in 2005. He is the chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Food Security and is and has been a member of editorial boards for a number of journals, such as Journal of Chinese Rural Economy, Review of Agricultural Economics, and Food Policy. He received a PhD in applied economics from the University of Minnesota and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Nanjing Agricultural University in China.

 

Xiangming Fang
Chair, Department of Applied Economics and Professor of Applied Economics, China Agricultural University, China

Xiangming Fang is currently professor of Applied Economics and chair for the Department of Applied Economics in the College of Economics and Management at China Agricultural University. He received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics and Management from Zhejiang University, China, in 1999 and a Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota, USA, in 2004.

 

 

Shaun Ferris
Director of Agriculture and Livelihoods, Catholic Relief Services, USA

Shaun Ferris is director of Agriculture and Livelihoods at Catholic Relief Services. His work focuses on agro-enterprise development and value chain support for smallholder farmers, specifically on building the agro-enterprise capacity of field staff and finding ways of generating value at the farm level. He has more than 21 years of experience in development agriculture. He has a B.Sc. in Horticultural Science from Reading University, an M.Sc. in Tropical Agronomy from Nottingham University, and a Ph.D. in Post-Harvest Science from Cranfield University, UK.

 

Connell Foley
Director of Strategy, Advocacy, and Learning, Concern Worldwide, Ireland

Connell Foley is director of Strategy, Advocacy, and Learning at Concern Worldwide. He is responsible for organizational policy and strategy, program quality, technical support, learning, research and innovation as well as global advocacy. He was one of the authors of the 2013 Global Hunger Index on the topic of community resilience to hunger. He has visited over twenty developing countries in Africa and Asia providing technical assistance.

 

 

Tim Frankenberger
President and Co-founder of Technical Assistance to NGOs (TANGO International), USA

Tim Frankenberger is the president and co-founder of Technical Assistance to NGOs (TANGO International) and a global expert on food security, livelihood approaches, and resilience. Tim has over thirty years of experience in international development, with specialized skills in project design, monitoring and evaluation, and policy analysis. He previously served as senior food security advisor and livelihood security coordinator with CARE and farming systems research specialist with the University of Arizona. His graduate work includes a Master’s degree as well as doctoral studies in Anthropology with a minor in Agricultural Economics.

 

Ato Newai Gebre-Ab
Chief Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister and Executive Director of the Ethiopian Development Research Institute, Ethiopia

Ato Newai Gebre-Ab has been the chief economic advisor to the president and prime minister of Ethiopia since 1991. He has also been serving as the director of the Ethiopian Development Research Institute, a semi-autonomous economic research institute established in 2000. He earned his undergraduate degree in Economics from Haile Selassie University, Ethiopia, and his B.Litt. degree in Economics from Oxford University, UK.

 

 

Haile Gebrselassie
Long-Distance Runner and Olympic Gold Medalist, Ethiopia

 

 

 

 

 

Bekele Geleta
Secretary General, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Switzerland

Bekele Geleta has extensive experience in policy, management, and administration in humanitarian organizations. However, it is his first-hand knowledge—having been a political prisoner and refugee himself—that helps him truly understand the people served by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Bekele’s involvement with the Movement began when he served as secretary general of the Ethiopian Red Cross from 1984-88. Under his leadership, the organization improved its operational efficiency and was able to help significantly more people affected by drought, increasing the number of beneficiaries supported from 100,000 to 1 million.

 

Tigabu Getahun
Junior Researcher, Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany

 

 

 

 

Michael Gort
Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Canada to the Food and Agriculture Agencies of the UN, Italy

Michael Gort is the deputy permanent representative of Canada to WFP and IFAD. He has served as the director in the UN, Commonwealth and Francophonie Division of the Multilateral and Global Programs Branch of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada; director of the Ghana Program of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); and the principal advisor and lead specialist for CIDA’s Asia Branch and Senior Governance Specialist. Michael holds an M.A. in International Affairs (International Political Economy) from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

 

Delia Grace
Program Leader, Food Safety and Zoonoses, Integrated Sciences, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya

Delia Grace is a Senior Researcher at the International Livestock Research Institute in Kenya, and also leads the Theme on Agriculture-Associated Diseases in the new CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Human Nutrition and Health. She is an epidemiologist and veterinarian with more than 15 years experience in developing countries and has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications as well as training courses, briefs, films, articles and blog posts. Her research program focuses on the design and promotion of risk-based approaches to food safety in livestock products in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

 

Sean Granville-Ross
Country Director, Mercy Corps, Uganda

Sean Granville-Ross is the country director for Mercy Corps in Uganda. He is a specialist in economic development and a seasoned field leader with 16 years of experience working in the private and nonprofit sectors. He has served as country director in both Mongolia and Indonesia and as the regional program director for East Asia. He draws on his global experience in successful program design, monitoring and evaluation and management that encompasses economic and market development projects, and sustainable rural livelihoods in Africa, the Caribbean, the Balkans, Mongolia and Indonesia.

 

Samia Zekaria Gutu
Director General, Central Statistical Agency, Ethiopia

Samia Zekaria Gutu is director general of the Central Statistics Agency of Ethiopia. She is one of the few agricultural statisticians in the world. She launched the first ever National Agricultural Sample Census and has led and managed four consecutive household surveys that show the country’s poverty profile. She holds an M.Sc. in Econometrics/Economic Statistics from Texas Tech University, USA, and a B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from Alemaya Agricultural College, Ethiopia.

 

 

Lawrence Haddad
Senior Research Fellow, Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division, IFPRI, USA

Lawrence Haddad is a senior research fellow in IFPRI’s Poverty, Health and Nutrition Division. He was the director of the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, from 2004 to 2014. Prior to that role, he was a division director at IFPRI and a lecturer in Development Economics at the University of Warwick, UK. He is an economist, and his main research interests are at the intersection of poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition.

 

 

Suprayoga Hadi
Deputy Minister for the Development of Special Regions, Ministry for the Development of Disadvantaged Regions, Indonesia

Suprayoga Hadi is deputy minister for the Development of Special Regions at the Ministry for the Development of Disadvantaged Regions, Indonesia. He is responsible for the planning, programming and monitoring of policies and strategies for disaster reduction and recovery-related issues, such as the rehabilitation and reconstruction of post-disaster areas in Indonesia, particularly in the post-tsunami recovery process in Aceh and Yogyakarta, as well as post-conflict regions in Aceh, Papua, and Maluku. He completed his Ph.D. in 2002 at the University of Southern California, USA.

 

Michael Hailu
Director, Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Netherlands

 

 

 

 

Mahalmoudou Hamadoun
Coordinator, Regional Support Programs for Food Security, Combatting Desertification, and Population and Development, Permanent Interstates Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS), Burkina Faso

 

 

 

Ruth Haug
Professor, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway

Ruth Haug is professor of Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Her field of expertise is inrural development with focuses on agriculture, food, and livelihood security; conflicts and forced migration; climate change and management of natural resources; agricultural extension and community development; and gender issues in development. She has represented Norway in CGIAR meetings, FAO meetings, and as a member of the Svalbard Seed Vault Council. She is also a member of IFPRI’s Board of Trustees and the Swedish Sida research committee. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, USA.

 

Derek Headey
Research Fellow, Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division, IFPRI, USA

Derek Headey is a research fellow in the Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division at IFPRI, where he has been a postdoctoral fellow since 2008. A development economist, his research encompasses a range of issues including development strategies, agricultural development, poverty and nutrition, structural change, demography and development, rebuilding after emergencies, and the political economy of development. He has published in a variety of journals, and he received his Ph.D. in Economics in 2007 from the University of Queensland, Australia.

 

Jeff Hill
Director for Policy, Bureau for Food Security, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), USA

Jeff Hill has many years of experience in African agricultural development and currently serves in USAID's Bureau for Food Security. He started his career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone and later served as Associate Peace Corps Director in that country. Prior to USAID, he worked for the World Bank for 10 years in Tanzania and Nigeria. He presently works on Feed the Future initiatives, and prior to that worked on many programs that promoted agricultural growth and built on African-led partnerships to cut hunger and poverty. He holds a BS from Weber State University in Utah in public administration and an MS from UC Davis in agricultural economics and agronomy.

 

John Hoddinott
Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director, Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division, IFPRI, USA

John Hoddinott is a senior research fellow and deputy director of IFPRI’s Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division. His principal research interest lies in the microeconometric analysis of issues in development economics. John is especially interested in the causes of poverty, food insecurity, and undernutrition, and the design and evaluation of interventions that would reduce these. Much of his current research has focused on the determinants and consequences of human capital formation. He holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Toronto, Canada, an M.A. from York University, Canada, and a D.Phil. in Economics from the University of Oxford, UK.

 

Nguyen Viet Hung
Scientist, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Vietnam

Hung Nguyen-Viet is a scientist at the Food Safety and Zoonoses program at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Vietnam. He also holds a joint appointment with the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) and Hanoi School of Public Health (HSPH). In this capacity, he is working on the interface between health and the environment, focusing on food safety, risk assessment, and the environment with an integrative approach. He is the regional coordinator of the Ecohealth Field Building Leadership Initiative in Southeast Asia.

 

Naoko Ishii
Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson, The Global Environment Facility, USA

Naoko Ishii is the chief executive officer and chairperson of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the world’s leading international institution with 182 member nations, dedicated to investing in the stewardship and health of the global environment. Previously, Naoko served in the Japanese Government as deputy vice minister of Finance. She has worked at the International Monetary Fund and Harvard University’s Institute for International Development and was World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka from 2006 to 2010. Her writings have been awarded the Suntory Prize (1990) and Okita Memorial Prize for International Development Research (2004).

 

Ajay Vir Jakhar
Farmer and Chairman, Bharat Krishak Samaj (Farmers’ Forum India), India

Ajay Vir Jakhar is a farmer in Village Maujgarh in Punjab, India, growing citrus and cotton. He is also chairman of Bharat Krishak Samaj (Farmers’ Forum, India) which was formed in 1955 and is a non-political, non-sectarian association of farmers advocating for farmer prosperity and choices. He is the editor of the agriculture magazines Farmers' Forum and Krishak Samachartargeting farmers, policymakers and others who influence policy in India.

 

 

Hans Jöhr
Corporate Head of Agriculture, Nestlé, Switzerland

Hans Jöhr is the corporate head of Agriculture at Nestlé in Vevey, Switzerland. He is responsible for providing technical and strategic leadership in the group’s worldwide agricultural raw material supply chain. He is a member of the International Policy Council on Agriculture Food and Trade as well as the Swiss National FAO Committee. He has a doctorate in Economic Science with complementary management programs at l'Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires, Fontainebleau, France; the International Institute for Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland; and Harvard Business School, USA.

 

John Kabayo
Coordinator, Drought Disaster Resilience and Sustainability Initiative, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) Secretariat, Djibouti

John Kabayo is the coordinator of the Drought Resilience Platform at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). He was an elected member of Parliament in Uganda and a member of the Constituent Assembly that wrote Uganda’s Constitution. As an international civil servant, he worked as a research scientist for the International Atomic Energy Agency, pioneered and led the Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign at the African Union Commission, and worked as a consultant for the African Development Bank on drought resilience.

 

John Kanisio
Secretary General, Food Security Council, Republic of South Sudan

 

Zhenya Karelina
Consultant, USA

Zhenya Karelina is a freelance consultant based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Previously, she was a research assistant with IFPRI where she worked on the last 2020 Conference, "Leveraging Agriculture for Health and Nutrition," in New Delhi, India. She graduated from Wellesley College, USA, with a B.A. in Sociology and Spanish.

 

Dyno Keatinge
Director General, AVRDC- The World Vegetable Center and Visiting Professor of Tropical Agriculture at The University of Reading, UK

Dyno Keatinge is director general of AVRDC – The World Vegetable Center, based in Taiwan. He is also a visiting professor of Tropical Agriculture at The University of Reading, UK. He has global expertise in crop agronomy, and he has worked at a range of international agricultural research centers: ICARDA (Syria), IITA (Nigeria) and ICRISAT (India). He also serves as chair of the Global Horticulture Initiative; vice-chair of the Association of International Research and Development Centers for Agriculture; and is on the Advisory Committee to the USAID Horticulture Innovation Lab. Dyno holds a doctorate in Agriculture from Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

 

Anita Kendrick
Governance and Environment Consultant, and Development Sociologist, World Bank, Indonesia

Anita Kendrick is a development sociologist whose work has focused on livelihoods and community resilience in a range of contexts across South and Southeast Asia. From 2008 to 2013, she managed monitoring and evaluation for the Multi Donor Fund for Aceh and Nias and the Java Reconstruction Fund, disaster recovery trust funds totaling more than US$750 million, under the World Bank. Prior to that role, she worked as senior livelihoods recovery adviser for Save the Children following the Aceh tsunami and Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. She currently works as a consultant on governance and the environment (climate change) for the World Bank in Indonesia.

 

Fahmida Khatun
Research Director, Centre for Policy Dialogue, Bangladesh

Fahmida Khatun is a research director at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD). Prior to joining the CPD, she worked as a research fellow at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, as an environment specialist for the United Nations Development Programme, and as an economist for the USAID mission in Bangladesh. Her areas of interest include macroeconomic growth and stability, international development finance, aid effectiveness, aid for trade, international trade and WTO issues, climate change, and green economy. She has a Ph.D. in Economics from University College London, UK.

 

Nadim Khouri
Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA), Lebanon

Dr. Nadim Khouri, joined ESCWA in August 2011 as the Deputy Executive Secretary after serving as the Director of Near East, North Africa and Europe Region with the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Prior to joining IFAD, Dr Khouri had a 20-year career at the World Bank in Washington DC, where he held various policy and operational positions related to economic, social and environmental development. He has a PhD in Agronomy from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (USA), an MSc from the Rural Economics Department of Wye College (University of London-UK) and a BSc and MSc in Agronomy from the American University of Beirut (Lebanon).

 

Stephan Krall
Head of Section, Agricultural Production and Resource Use, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusam­menarbeit (GIZ), Germany

Stephan Krall is currently the head of section of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusam­menarbeit (GIZ),where he leads a competence center on Agricultural Production and Resource Use and is manager of a project on sustainable agriculture. He has worked on GIZ projects in Togo and Benin, West Africa, on post-harvest and plant protection, and on regional projects on locust and grasshopper control. He studied biology at the University of Hamburg and wrote his doctoral thesis at the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany.

 

Anirudh Krishna
Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, Associate Dean for International Academic Programs, Duke University, USA

Anirudh Krishna is Edgar T. Thompson Professor of Public Policy and Political Science, as well as associate dean for International Academic Programs, at Duke University. His research investigates how poor communities and individuals in developing countries cope with the structural and personal constraints that result in poverty and powerlessness. Before returning to academia, he spent 14 years with the Indian Administrative Service, managing diverse rural and urban development initiatives. He has a Master’s degree in Economics from Delhi University, India, and a Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University, USA.

 

H.E. John Kufuor
Former President, Republic of Ghana

 

 

 

 

 

Neha Kumar
Research Fellow, Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division, IFPRI

Neha Kumar is a research fellow in the Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division at IFPRI where she joined as a postdoctoral fellow in 2008. An economist by training, she has research experience in Africa south of the Sahara and South Asia on issues relating to poverty, agriculture, risk management, gender and social protection. Her current work focuses on impact evaluation of large scale social protection as well as agricultural interventions, risk management, gendered impacts of shocks, reforms and interventions. Prior to joining IFPRI, Neha worked at the World Bank and CARE India. She received her Ph.D. in Economics from Boston University, USA, in 2008. She holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Economics from the University of Delhi, India.

 

Jon Kurtz
Director for Research and Learning, Mercy Corps, USA

Jon Kurtz leads Mercy Corps’s program research and impact evaluation efforts. Within the field of program evaluation, his areas of expertise are mixed methods impact evaluation and theory-driven evaluation. His recent studies have tested theories of change related to food security, resilience, youth employment, and peacebuilding. Jon’s work has spanned both emergency and longer-term development contexts. He holds an M.Sc. in Management of Agricultural Knowledge Systems from Wageningen University, Netherlands.

 

Peter Little
Professor, Chair of Anthropology, Director of Emory Program in Development Studies, Department of Anthropology, Emory University, USA

Peter Little is professor and chair of Anthropology and director of the Emory Program in Development Studies, Emory University. During the past 25 years, he has directed interdisciplinary programs on pastoralism, rural-urban trade, and food security in the Horn of Africa. He has served on committees for the U.S. Fulbright Program, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the African Studies Association and has published more than 100 journal articles, book chapters and research papers, as well as 10 books. He received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Indiana University, USA.

 

Chengfang Liu
Associate Professor, Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Chengfang Liu is an associate professor at the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research is mainly focused on the provision of public goods and services, rural development, and rigorous impact assessments in areas of education, health and nutrition policies in rural China.

 

 

Vijay Mahajan
Founder, Chairman, BASIX Social Enterprise Group, India

Vijay Mahajan is the founder and chairman of the BASIX Social Enterprise Group. He is a Distinguished Alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a Mid-Career Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, USA. He was selected among “the 60 outstanding social entrepreneurs of the world” at the World Economic Forum, Davos in 2003; among “the 50 most influential Indians” by Business Week, Asia in 2009; and among “the twenty Indians who will lead India’s reforms this decade” by the Financial Express in 2011.

 

Lu Mai
Secretary General, China Development Research Foundation, China

 

 

 

 

Patricia Malikail
Director General, Africa Bureau, Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada, Government of Canada

Patricia Malikail is the director general of the Africa Bureau of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade, and Development within the Government of Canada. She has previously been stationed in Canberra, Beijing and Singapore, and served as director of the International Economics Relations and Summits Division, and executive director of the Science, Technology and Innovation Council Secretariat. While deputy director of the China Division (1994-1996), she was awarded a Government of Canada Merit Award. She holds a B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Guelph, Canada.

 

Tekalign Mamo
State Minister and Minister's Advisor, Ministry of Agriculture, Ethiopia

Tekalign Mamo is state minister and advisor to the minister of Agriculture, Ethiopia. He has served as advisor to the deputy prime minister and minister of Agriculture, state minister of Agriculture, vice president of Haramaya University, and senior researcher and director of research. He has published over 75 scientific papers and book chapters focusing on soil chemistry and fertility, crop nutrition, Vertisol management, and soil nutrient assessment techniques. He holds a Ph.D. in Soil Chemistry and Fertility from Aberdeen University, Scotland.

 

Wondirad Mandefro
State Minister of Agriculture, Ethiopia

Wondirad Mandefro is the state minister of Agriculture for the Government of Ethiopia. He previously worked as researcher for eighteen years at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research and Plant Protection Research Center. He studied biology and earned his B.Sc. from the University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1989. He also received a double M.Sc. from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, and the University of Gent, Belgium, in Applied Genetics and Nematology.

 

Simon Maxwell
Senior Research Associate, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), UK

Simon Maxwell has been a Senior Research Associate of the Overseas Development Institute, the UK’s leading independent think-tank on international development, since 1999 after serving as Director from 1997-1999. His principal engagements include acting as Executive Chair of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network, and specialist adviser to the UK House of Commons International Development Select Committee. He is a trustee of the UK Fair Trade Foundation and of the Spanish think-tank, FRIDE. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Poverty and Sustainable Development, and of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Union’s Commissioner for development.

 

Jean-François Maystadt
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

 

 

 

 

Bonnie McClafferty
Director, Agriculture and Nutrition, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), USA

Bonnie McClafferty is the director of Agriculture and Nutrition at GAIN. She has over 20 years of experience working within CGIAR. Prior to joining GAIN, she headed the HarvestPlus office on Development and Communications, and led the communications work for the Food Consumption and Nutrition Division of IFPRI. She currently serves on the Technical Advisory Committee of Helen Keller International, is a member of the Executive Steering Committee of the Sweetpotato for Profit and Health Initiative (SASHA) and is a board member of the NGO StepUp (Sao Tome and Principe Union for Promotion).

 

John McDermott
Director, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), USA

John McDermott is Director of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health. His research career has focused on public health, animal health and livestock research in developing countries, primarily Africa. He has led projects on zoonotic and emerging diseases in Asia and Africa. He has a PhD in quantitative epidemiology from the University of Guelph, a Masters Degree in Preventive Veterinary Medicine from the University of California – Davis and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Guelph. John is the author or co-author of 200 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters and conference papers.

 

Sarah McMullan
Research Assistant, Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division, IFPRI, USA

Sarah McMullan is a research assistant in IFPRI’s Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division. She provides research and communication support for a five-year IFPRI project that supports the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency. Prior to joining IFPRI, Sarah spent time in Taiwan and China to work with small nonprofit organizations and to learn Mandarin Chinese.

 

 

Purvi Mehta-Bhatt
Regional Representative, South Asia, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), India

Purvi Mehta-Bhatt is the regional representative of South Asia for the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). She has over 18 years of experience working on technology transfer, capacity development, and research into use programs. She is well known for her policy negotiations working on translating scientific research into large-scale policies, and she has three books and over 68 publications to her credit.

 

 

Ruth Meinzen-Dick
Senior Research Fellow, Coordinator of the CGIAR program on Collective Action and Property Rights, Environment and Production Technology Division, IFPRI, USA

Ruth Meinzen-Dick joined IFPRI in 1989. She is a senior research fellow and coordinator of the CGIAR program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi). Her research deals with water resource management, land, forests, property rights, collective action, and the impact of agricultural research on poverty. She leads IFPRI’s Gender Task Force and co-leads work on strengthening women’s assets. She received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Development Sociology from Cornell University, USA, and her B.A. in Anthropology from Washington University, USA.

 

Alisher Mirzabaev
Senior Researcher, Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany

Alisher Mirzabaev is a senior researcher at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn. His research interests include economics of land degradation, climate change, and bioenergy. Before joining ZEF, he was an economist with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). He holds a Master’s degree in Development Studies from the University of Grenoble, France, and a Ph.D. from the University of Bonn, Germany.

 

Jacqueline Mkindi
Chief Executive, Tanzania Horticultural Association, Tanzania

 

Harriet Mugera
Ph.D. Candidate, University of Trento, Italy

Harriet Mugera is a Ph.D. candidate in economics and management at the School of Social Sciences at the University of Trento, Italy. She has worked as an economist and econometrician in the Trade and Markets and Agricultural Development Economics Divisions of FAO. Her research interests are in international, agricultural and monetary economics, financial and commodity markets, development economics, poverty, and vulnerability. She holds an M.Sc. in Economics and Finance from the University of Trento.

 

Richard Munang
Africa Regional Climate Change Programme Coordinator, Regional Office for Africa – United Nations Environment Program, Kenya

Richard Munang is the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Regional Climate Change Programme Coordinator. He is also UNEP’s Ecosystem Based Adaptation for Food Security Coordinator. His areas of action-oriented research combine interdisciplinary science on climate change adaptation and the role of ecosystems in delivering sustainable food production in the context of changing climatic conditions. He has participated in a wide variety of research projects and has published more than 100 articles in international peer-reviewed journals. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Change & Policy from the University of Nottingham, UK.

 

Esther Mwaura-Muiru
National Coordinator and Founder of Grassroots Organizations Operating Together in Sisterhood (GROOTS), Kenya

Esther Mwaura-Muiru is the national coordinator and founder of Grassroots Organizations Operating Together in Sisterhood (GROOTS) in Kenya. Founded in 1995, GROOTS is a force of over 2,000 community-based organizations and self-help groups. As the national coordinator in GROOTS, Esther drives the organization’s mission by ensuring that programs are designed to reflect a theory of change that seeks to facilitate grassroots women to engage in development through core strategies like movement building, leadership, and advocacy.

 

Erastus Mwencha
Deputy Chairperson, African Union Commission, Ethiopia

Erastus Mwencha is the deputy chairperson of the African Union Commission, with over thirty years of experience in policy formulation and institutional transformation. During his first tenure as deputy chairperson, he placed particular emphasis on supporting the continental development agenda and programs as well as strengthening internal institutional systems. During his second and last term, he has been leading the design and implementation of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) which promotes policy advocacy for agricultural development and food security. He has also focused on the implementation of continental flagship projects such as the Campaign for Accelerated Action for Reduction of Maternal Mortality in Africa (CAARMA) and the control and eradication of HIV/AIDS and Malaria, with a view to raising living standards of people in Africa.

 

David Nabarro
Special Representative on Food Security and Nutrition, UN Secretary-General, Switzerland, USA

David Nabarro is the United Nations Secretary-General Special Representative on Food Security and Nutrition, as well as coordinator of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) movement. He trained as a medical doctor, worked for six years in South Asia, East Africa, and Iraq, and taught for six years at the London and Liverpool Schools of Tropical Medicine. He has worked with the UN as senior coordinator for Avian and Pandemic Influenza, and coordinator of the UN system’s High Level Task Force on Global Food Security.

 

Robert Nasi
Deputy Director General – Research, Acting Director, CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees, and Agroforestry, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Indonesia

Robert Nasi is the deputy director general of Research and acting director of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees, and Agroforestry at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). He has been living and traveling extensively in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, undertaking research activities in the fields of ecology and management of tropical forests. His research interests pertain to the sustainable use of forest products and multiple-use management of tropical forests. His scientific work aims to integrate social and biological sciences for better management of tropical forests, more sustainable livelihoods, and better designed forest policies.

 

Kanayo F. Nwanze
President, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Italy

Kanayo F. Nwanze is the president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), where he is serving a second four-year term of office. He brings over 35 years of experience across three continents, focusing on poverty reduction through agriculture, rural development and research. As an intellectual leader on issues of food security, he has been a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Food Security since 2010, and formerly chaired the group. He earned a Ph.D. in Agricultural Entomology from Kansas State University, USA, in 1975.

 

Lucy Nyirenda
Regional Programme Officer- East and Southern Africa, African Risk Capacity, South Africa

Lucy Nyirenda joined the African Risk Capacity (ARC) in June 2012 as a regional programme officer. She is responsible for managing the in-country processes for the East and Southern African regions. Prior to joining ARC, she worked for the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security in the Government of Malawi as an economist in the Risk Management section, where she took a leading role in the implementation of market-based risk management instruments. She has a B.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the College of Agriculture, University of Malawi, Malawi, and an M.Sc. in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida, USA.

 

James Oduor Okoth
Chief Executive Officer, National Drought Management Authority, Kenya

James Oduor Okoth is the chief executive officer of Kenya’s National Drought Management Authority. He has worked in a senior capacity with the Kenyan government for nearly 25 years, as National Drought Management coordinator, senior agricultural officer in charge of Early Warning and Food Security, and senior agricultural officer in charge of Extension Supervision. He holds a Master’s degree with a specialization in Agricultural Extension and Training and a B.Sc. degree in General Agriculture.

 

Willis Okumu
Junior Researcher, Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany

Willis Okumu is a junior researcher at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn, Germany. He is also a fellow of the Africa Good Governance Network of the German Academic Exchange Service and an associate fellow of Africa Research and Resource Forum, a think tank based in Nairobi. He holds an M.A. in Social Anthropology from the University of Cologne, Germany, and a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

 

Tolulope Olofinbiyi
Program Manager, Director General’s Office, IFPRI, USA

Tolulope Olofinbiyi is a program manager in IFPRI’s Director General’s Office. She manages activities for the director general’s research and outreach. She has an extensive background working in the agribusiness sector in Nigeria and has worked with Development Alternatives Incorporated in Bethesda, Maryland. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria, a Master’s degree in Agribusiness from Texas A&M University and a second Master’s degree in International Affairs (Development Economics) from the Fletcher School, Tufts University, USA.

 

Steven Were Omamo
Director, Policy Program, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Kenya

Steven Were Omamo is the director of Policy Program at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). He joined AGRA in 2012 from the World Food Programme (WFP), where he served as director of the Addis Ababa Liaison Office and representative to the African Union and UN Economic Commission for Africa. He has published extensively on agricultural and broader economic development policy, with a particular focus on policy requirements for strengthening smallholder agriculture in Africa. He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural and Applied Economics from Stanford University, USA.

 

Rajul Pandya-Lorch
Head of the 2020 Vision Initiative and Chief of Staff, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), USA

Rajul Pandya-Lorch concurrently serves at IFPRI as chief of staff in the Director General’s Office and head of the 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment Initiative. She has facilitated four major international conferences on (1) “Leveraging Agriculture for Improving Nutrition and Health;” (2) “Taking Action for the World’s Poor and Hungry People;” (3) “Assuring Food and Nutrition Security in Africa by 2020;” and (4) “Sustainable Food Security for All by 2020.” She received the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association 2010 Quality of Communication Award with David Spielman for the work on Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development and the 2002 award for Distinguished Policy Contribution, along with Per Pinstrup-Andersen and Mark Rosegrant.

 

Prabhu Pingali
Professor and Founding Director, Tata-Cornell Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative, Cornell University

Prabhu Pingali is professor in Cornell University’s Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and the founding director of the Tata-Cornell Agriculture and Nutrition Initiative. Prior to joining Cornell, he served as deputy director of the Agriculture Development Division of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has three decades of experience analyzing global food, agriculture and development policy and was director of the Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UN. He earned a PhD in Economics from North Carolina State University.

 

Agusdin Pulungan
President, Indonesia Farmers and Fishers Society Organisation (WAMTI), Indonesia

Agusdin Pulungan was a professional farmer from 1995 to 2001, growing corn and native banana in Majalengka, West Java, Indonesia. He founded a farmers’ foundation in 1994 and advised companies and international agents on agribusiness development for smallholder farmers. He has been active in the Indonesia Farmers and Fishers Society Organisation (WAMTI) since 1998, advocating for farmers’ rights to land, water, food, and fair trade. He is currently serving as its president. He speaks in local, national, and international fora and holds an Agriculture Engineering diploma and an M.Sc. in Development Sociology.

 

A. Atiq Rahman
Executive Director, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, Bangladesh

A. Atiq Rahman is executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS). He is a leading climate scientist and visionary thinker on sustainable development from South Asia. He is widely known for his research and publications on climate justice, food security, and human security. He received the UN’s Champion of the Earth award in 2008 from the UNEP for the Asia Pacific Region. He also received the Paribesh Padak in 2008, the highest environment award of the Government of Bangladesh. He was a lead author of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

 

Anita Regmi
Senior Science Officer for Policy and Economics, CGIAR Consortium, France

Anita Regmi is a senior science officer for Policy and Economics at the CGIAR Consortium. She has led research programs on international food demand, food supply chains, post-harvest food losses, and market access reform issues related to USDA’s bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations. She received her B.S. in Agriculture at Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University, India, and her Master’s and Ph.D. in Applied Economics from the University of Minnesota, USA.

 

 

Roseline Remans
Associate Research Scientist, Earth Institute, Columbia University, USA

Roseline Remans is an associate research scientist at the Agriculture and Food Security Center of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and a consultant with Bioversity International. Her work focuses on synergies and tradeoffs between agriculture, the environment, and human nutrition. Roseline has a Ph.D. in Biosystems Engineering from the University of Leuven, Belgium.

 

 

Mark W. Rosegrant
Director, Environment and Production Technology Division, IFPRI, USA

Mark W. Rosegrant is director of the Environment and Production Technology Division of IFPRI. He currently directs research on climate change, water resources, sustainable land management, genetic resources and biotechnology, and agriculture and energy. He is the author or editor of 12 books and over 100 refereed papers in agricultural economics, water resources and food policy analysis. Mark has won numerous awards, and is a fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, USA.

 

Sandrine Roussy
Disaster Risk Management Advisor, Action Contre La Faim, France

Sandrine Roussy began her career in humanitarian organization as a program coordinator on water and sanitation. This allowed her to manage projects in Burma, Guinea, Indonesia, and Zimbabwe. As technical advisor on Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change, she turns research into practice for Action Contre La Faim (ACF) programs. She holds a Master’s degree in Climate Change and Development from the University of Sussex, UK.

 

 

Mara Russell
Practice Manager for Gender and Resilience, Land O'Lakes, Inc., USA

Mara Russell is practice manager for Gender and Resilience at Land O'Lakes, Inc. She has worked in the fields of food aid, food security, gender integration, and resilience for 28 years, and she has been with Land O'Lakes for the past 10 years. She holds a B.A. from the University of California- Los Angeles and an M.A. from Columbia University, USA, both in Anthropology.

 

 

Stefan Schmitz
Head of Division, Rural Development and Food Security, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany

Stefan Schmitz is head of division of Rural Development and Food Security at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in Bonn, Germany. He has worked as senior advisor to the Secretariat of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, coordinated the German bilateral cooperation program with South Africa and Namibia, and was deputy head of the infrastructure division at the BMZ. He received a Ph.D. in Geosciences from the Free University of Berlin, Germany, in 2000.

 

Maria Helena Semedo
Deputy Director-General, Natural Resources, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Italy

Maria Helena Semedo, a national of Cape-Verde, was appointed to the position of FAO Deputy Director-General, Coordinator for Natural Resources in July 2013. Prior to this, she was FAO Assistant Director-General/Regional Representative for Africa from 2008-2009 and FAO Representative in Niger from 2003-2008. She was a Member of Parliament from 2001-2003 and Minister for Tourism, Transportation and Marine Affairs from 1998-2001. She holds an M.Sc. in Economics from the "Instituto Superior de Economia", Lisbon, Portugal.

 

Paul Sherlock
Head of Development Cooperation, Irish Aid, Embassy of Ireland, Ethiopia

Paul Sherlock is the head of Development Cooperation at the Embassy of Ireland in Addis Ababa. Prior to taking up this post he led Irish Aid’s work at headquarters on aid quality, aid modalities, and the Post-2015 development agenda. From 2004–2008 he was posted at the Irish Embassy in Dar es Salaam. He also spent seven years with the Irish NGO Concern in various management and policy positions, including three years in Ethiopia. He is an economist with a Master’s degree in Development Studies from University College Dublin, Ireland.

 

Jonathan Shrier
Special Representative for Global Food Security (acting), Office of Global Food Security, U.S. Department of State, USA

 

 

 

 

Jaidev Shroff
Chief Executive Officer, UPL Limited, India

Jaidev Shroff is the global chief executive officer at UPL Limited, responsible for managing new ventures and products, and international business and strategic alliances. He is also the director of Uniphos Agro Industries, Uniphos Enterprises Ltd., and Advanta India Ltd, among many other ventures. He previously served as director of Nirlon Ltd. and Mount Everest Mineral Water Ltd. He is a graduate in chemistry from Bombay University and was named as being among the top 40 most influential figures in the chemicals industry worldwide.

 

Lindiwe Majele Sibanda
Chief Executive Officer and Head of Mission, Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), South Africa

Lindiwe Majele Sibanda is the chief executive officer of FANRPAN. She has over 20 years of transdisciplinary experience in rural development, public sector reforms, and private sector management. Her experience includes helping government ministries of agriculture to streamline their activities and create a conducive environment for the private sector, developing locally based processes for channeling analytical input into policy making, and establishing and strengthening government-civil society policy dialogue platforms. Currently she serves as a trustee for 3 CGIAR centers and as advisor to numerous international food security-related initiatives.

 

Alok K. Sikka
Deputy Director General of Natural Resource Management, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, India

Alok K. Sikka is deputy director general of Natural Resource Management at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). He also holds the position of technical expert in watershed development in India’s National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA). Before joining NRAA, he was director of the ICAR Research Complex for the Eastern Region, Patna; and Basin Coordinator for the Indo-Gangetic Basin under the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Engineering from Allahabad University and his M.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, India. He also has a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Utah State University, USA.

 

Sok Silo
Deputy Secretary General, Council for Agricultural and Rural Development, Cambodia

Sok Silo has more than 18 years of experience in the fields of administration, agricultural coordination, and rural development for the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and the Council for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD). In addition to his current position, he has been appointed as the head of Food Security and Nutrition Coordination Unit and is also a member of the Technical Working Group on Social Protection and Food Security and Nutrition. He holds a doctoral degree in Business Administration.

 

Rachel Slater
Research Fellow and Head of Programme, Social Protection, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), UK

 

 

 

 

Jimmy Smith
Director General, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya

Jimmy Smith was appointed director general of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in April 2011. Before joining ILRI, he worked for the World Bank leading its Global Livestock Portfolio. Previously, he held senior positions at the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) (2001–2006). Earlier in his career, he worked at ILRI and its predecessor, the International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) (1991–2001). He is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, where he completed a Ph.D. in Animal Sciences.

 

Girish G. Sohani
President and Managing Trustee, BAIF Development Research Foundation, India

Girish G. Sohani is the president and managing trustee of the BAIF Development Research Foundation. He works toward the generation of rural livelihoods through interventions in the areas of agriculture and horticulture, watershed management, post-harvest activities, renewable energy, and training.

 

 

Fatima Dia Sow
Commissioner for Social Affairs and Gender, ECOWAS/CEDEAO Commission, Nigeria

Fatima Dia Sow is the ECOWAS Commissioner for Social Affairs and Gender. From 2011-2013 she was Coordinator of the Gender and Social Program of the Millennium Challenge Account in Senegal. She has several years of experience in agricultural research and development at the Senegalese Agricultural Research Institute (ISRA) where she served as researcher senior officer in mixed production systems crop/livestock, agricultural economics, and gender and economy. She holds a Doctorate in Veterinary Sciences and Medicine from EISMV, University of Cheikh Anta Diop, a Specialized Diploma in Economics and Rural Policy with distinction from Louvain la Neuve in Belgium, and a PhD in Agricultural Economics and Gender from University Wageningen.

 

Douglas Steinberg
Regional Director, West Africa, Helen Keller International, Senegal

Douglas Steinberg is Regional Director, West Africa, with Helen Keller International, and supervises HKI programs in seven West African countries. Beginning as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon, Doug has accumulated experience in Africa and Asia. He has worked with international NGOs in program and management positions, and he has gained experience in program areas including natural resources management, humanitarian response, food security, health and HIV/AIDS, women’s savings and credit, appropriate technology, governance and policy analysis. He holds a BA in political science from the University of Michigan and an MS in natural resources policy analysis from the University of Washington.

 

Tahlim Sudaryanto
Assistant Minister for International Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Indonesia

Tahlim Sudaryanto is assistant minister for International Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture, Indonesia. Prior to this role, he spent more than 13 years in various positions at the Ministry of Agriculture. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Baños, Philippines. His major areas of professional interest include agricultural policy, international trade, and rural economies. He completed his Ph.D in Economics from North Carolina State University, USA, and his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Agricultural Economics were completed at Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia.

 

Gibson Susumu
Food Security Officer, Land Resources Division, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Fiji Islands

Gibson Susumu is currently serving as the food security officer for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), an intergovernmental organization of the Pacific Island Countries. With SPC, he is involved with food security vulnerability assessments and evaluation of resilient food production systems in the Pacific Region. He holds a B.Sc. in Agriculture from the University of the South Pacific and an M.Sc. in Agriculture from the National University of Science and Technology, Taiwan.

 

 

Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse
Senior Research Fellow, Development Strategy and Governance, IFPRI, Ethiopia

Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse is currently a senior research fellow in IFPRI’s Development Strategy and Governance Division. His most recent research covered impact evaluation of safety net programs, inter-sectoral growth linkages, performance of cooperatives, crop productivity, aspirations and wellbeing, and weather-indexed insurance. He is also the current president of the Ethiopian Economics Association. He has previously worked as an assistant professor of Economics at Addis Ababa University and an economic affairs officer at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. He holds a D.Phil. in Economics from the University of Oxford, UK.

 

Stephan B. Tanda
Member, Member of the Managing Board, Royal DSM, Netherlands

Stephan B. Tanda is a member of the Managing Board of Royal DSM, where he is responsible for the Nutrition Cluster. In addition, he has corporate responsibilities for the Americas, Switzerland, and the Sales and Marketing functions. He began his career with DuPont, and in 1998 he was appointed director of Corporate Planning and later vice president of Strategic Planning and New Business Development. In 2000, he was appointed president of Protein Technologies International, Inc. and later president and chief executive officer of The Solae Company, an innovative food ingredient joint venture between DuPont and Bunge. He studied Polymer Engineering at the University of Leoben, Austria, and Business Administration at the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania, USA.

 

Sukhadeo Thorat
Professor of Economics, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Chairman, Indian Council of Social Science Research, India

Sukhadeo Thorat is professor of Economics at the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, as well aschairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research. His areas of research include agricultural development, rural poverty, and education. He has more than 100 publications to his credit and obtained his Ph.D. in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.

 

Eric Tollens
Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Division of Bioeconomics, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

Eric Tollens is a professor (emeritus) of Agricultural Economics and head of the Centre for Agricultural and Food Economics at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. His areas of expertise include agricultural economics, agricultural marketing, food security, and African agricultural research. He received his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University, USA.

 

 

Maximo Torero
Director, Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division, IFPRI

Maximo Torero is the director of IFPRI’s Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division, leader of the Global Research Program on Institutions and Infrastructure for Market Development and director for Latin America. He has fifteen years of experience in applied research and in operational activities. Prior to joining IFPRI, he was a senior researcher and member of the executive committee at Group of Analysis for Development (GRADE). He received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles, Department of Economics and held a postdoctoral fellow position at the UCLA Institute for Social Science Research. He is also a professor on leave at the Universidad del Pacífico, and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Bonn, Germany.

 

Nguyen Do Anh Tuan
Deputy Director General, Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam

 

Rhoda Peace Tumusiime
Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Commission, Ethiopia

Her Excellency Tumusiime Rhoda Peace is Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture at the African Union Commission. Prior to being elected to this position, Mrs Tumusiime was Commissioner for Agricultural Planning in the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries in the government of Uganda. Her current portfolio covers crop agriculture, livestock development, fisheries management, water resources, forestry, environment and sustainable development, climate change and climate services, disaster risk reduction and rural development. The AUC has a standing MoU with IFPRI guiding cooperation between the two institutions in the above areas particularly in agriculture, food and nutrition security.

 

Ann Tutwiler
Director General, Bioversity International, Italy

 

 

 

 

 

Emorn Udomkesmalee (Wasantwisut)
Senior Advisor, Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University, Thailand

Emorn Udomkesmalee (Wasantwisut) is the senior advisor and former director of the Institute of Nutrition, Mahidol University, Thailand. She is an adjunct associate professor of International Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. She is the scientific director of International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) South East Asia Region, and she has published close to 60 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals. She received her Ph.D. in Nutritional Biochemistry and Metabolism from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, in 1985.

 

Gerda Verburg
Chair, Committee on World Food Security (CFS), Italy

Gerda Verburg is the chair of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and Netherlands’ permanent representative to the UN food organizations (the FAO, WFP and IFAD) in Rome. She has previously served as the Dutch minister of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality and was chairperson of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. She was a member of Parliament for the Christian Democratic Alliance (CDA) from 1998 to 2007 and again from 2010 to 2011. In 2010-2011, she chaired the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on European Affairs and was CDA spokesperson on economic affairs, energy and innovation policy.

 

Joachim von Braun
Director, Department of Economic and Technological Change, Center for Development Research (ZEF), and Professor, University of Bonn, Germany

Joachim von Braun is professor and director of the Department of Economic and Technological Change at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn. His main research interests are in economic development, poverty reduction, food and nutrition security, science and technology policy. He is chair of the Bioeconomy Council of the Federal German Government, vice president of the NGO Welthungerhilfe, vice chair of the Board of Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, and member of several academies. He was director general of IFPRI from 2002 to 2009.

 

Jeff Waage
Director, London International Development Centre, and Professor of International Development, University of London, UK

Jeff Waage is director of the London International Development Centre and chair of its Leverhulme Centre on Integrative Research in Agriculture and Health, which brings together experts from different institutions and disciplines to address the challenge of feeding the world in a healthy fashion in 2050. A pest management specialist by training, he has a Ph.D. from Imperial College London, UK.

 

 

Jillian L. Waid
Manager of Research, Learning, and Evaluation, Helen Keller International, Bangladesh

Jillian L. Waid is the manager of Research, Learning, and Evaluation for Helen Keller International, based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In this role, she developed the current methodology and analysis structure used in the Food Security and Nutrition Surveillance Project. This system is the largest food and nutrition security surveillance system in the world. In addition, Jillian leads the design and implementation of evaluations for external and internal projects. She has a B.A. in Economics and South Asian Studies from Brown University and an M.S.W. in in Social and Economic Development from Washington University, USA.

 

Judi Wakhungu
Cabinet Secretary – Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, Kenya

 

 

 

 

D.B.T. Wijeratne
Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Sri Lanka

D.B.T. Wijeratne is the additional secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture in Sri Lanka. He obtained his doctorate in Food Science from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1992 and is a Chartered Chemist. He started his career as a researcher, and his professional career outside the state sector includes teaching for universities and working as a resource person for international organizations.

 

 

Carolyn Woo
President and Chief Executive Officer, Catholic Relief Services, USA

Carolyn Woo is the chief executive officer and president of Catholic Relief Services (CRS). Representing CRS, she was featured in the May/June 2013 issue of Foreign Policy
as one of the 500 Most Powerful People on the Planet and 1 of only 33 in the category of "a force for good." Before working at CRS, she served as the dean of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, and as associate executive vice president for Academic Affairs at Purdue University. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Economics, M.S. in Industrial Administration, and Ph.D. all from Purdue University, USA.

 

Amanda Wyatt
Senior Research Assistant, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, IFPRI, USA

Amanda Wyatt is a senior research assistant for the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, led by IFPRI. Prior to joining IFPRI, she worked for the Emory Prevention Research Center assisting in the coordination of a trial experiment examining the influence of a health coaching model on nutrition and physical activity behaviors. Amanda holds an MPH from Emory University, USA, with a focus on Global Health and Public Nutrition.

 

 

Tefera Deribew Yimam
Minister of Agriculture, Ethiopia

Tefera Derbew Yimam is the minister of Agriculture for the Government of Ethiopia. He holds an M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from Alemaya University, Ethiopia.

 

 

Jakob Zinsstag-Klopfenstein
Professor and Deputy Head, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Switzerland

Jakob Zinsstag-Klopfenstein is professor of epidemiology at the University of Basel and deputy head of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (TPH). Since 1998 he has led a research group at TPH in Basel on the interface of human and animal health with a focus on health of nomadic people and control of zoonoses in developing countries under the paradigm of “one health.” He graduated with a doctorate in Veterinary Medicine on Salmonella Diagnosis at the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Berne, Switzerland.

 

Linxiu Zhang
Professor and Deputy Director, Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Linxiu Zhang is a professor and deputy director at the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences. For more than 30 years, her research has concentrated on policy-relevant studies on rural development in China, particularly on rural labor market development, rural public goods investment, and impacts of rural fiscal and institutional reforms. In recent years, her team has also focused on how to carry out rigorous impact assessments in areas of rural health and education policies. She has published more than 160 papers both domestically and internationally.

 

Xiaobo Zhang
Senior Research Fellow, Development Strategy and Governance, IFPRI, USA

Xiaobo Zhang is a senior research fellow in IFPRI’s Development Strategy and Governance Division and a “National 1000-Talent Program” chair professor of economics and deputy dean at the National School of Development, Peking University. His research fields are Chinese economy and development economics. He is a co-editor of the China Economic Review. He was selected as the president of the Chinese Economists Society from 2005 to 2006. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell University, USA.

 

Jing Zhu
Professor and Dean, College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU), China

Dr. Jing Zhu is a professor and dean of the College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University (NAU), China. She has obtained her Ph. D. in Agricultural Economics from NAU in 2000 and joined IFPRI as a post-doctoral research fellow in 2001. After she came back to China, she has been engaged in research and teaching in the area of agricultural economics, mainly in food security studies. Dr. Zhu has published widely and has won a series of awards from the Chinese government. She is currently appointed as Cheung Kong Scholars Chair Professor by the Ministry of Education of China.

 

Ming Zhu
Director of Policy Research Department of National Disaster Reduction Centre, Ministry of Civil Affairs, China

 

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma

Chairperson, African Union Commission, Ethiopia

Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma is the chairperson of the African Union Commission, Ethiopia. She is the first woman to lead this continental organization or its predecessor, the Organization of African Unity. She is a politician and an activist. While serving as minister of health in the cabinet of then-president Nelson Mandela, she desegregated South Africa’s health system and championed the health reforms that introduced access to free basic healthcare. She was appointed minister of Foreign Affairs in 1999, and in this role she championed human rights, stability, peace, collective development, and the advancement of the African continent. She continues to work for the cause of freedom for the people of South Africa and the development and consolidation of its democracy in the quest to create a better life for all Africans.